How to Create a Marketing Campaign like Google (and Surprise and Delight Your Audience)

The Full Value of Mobile promotion is an outstanding example of new media marketing, content creation and pure entertainment.

So let’s take a close look at Google’s methods to see how you can create something similar.

Start with your landing page

No matter what campaign you’re planning, you need to start with a landing page. This orients your visitors and helps them understand how to navigate the different elements of your promotion.

Google, of course, is a master of minimalism, so its page is pure simplicity:

It’s well-branded. It has plenty of white space. And it relies on Google’s primary color scheme to liven things up.

Notice how few words are used. A minimalistic design like this is risky because it doesn’t tell people what to do next. But Google has conditioned its followers to look for surprises, so people know they’ll be rewarded if they click on something.

This page doesn’t disappoint.

Viewers who click on the “Learn the Full Value of Mobile” link arrive on this page:

The only instructions are in the center of the graphic: Play Short Video. And the adventure begins.

From there you’re taken to YouTube to a series of six videos:

How They Got There. An overview video that gives viewers a framework for what’s going on.

A Curious Delivery. Act 1 in the story.

The Grey Suite and the Rough Day. Act 2.

Becoming Queen Elizabeth. Act 3.

Extra Anchovies and the Moon. Act 4.

A Thursday Invitation. Act 5.

My thoughts

This format works for Google because you know what to expect from them.

In this case, you can click the circles in any order and the story makes sense, so the circle works. But there is an order to the story. In fact, Google’s overview video calls each piece of the story an “act,” like a play.

This is an incredibly complicated promotion that would take a lot of work to imitate. But you could simplify it by creating a series of videos, then laying them out in order. That, or give more instructions so people know what path to follow when exploring your page.

Introducing your series: the overview

No matter how complicated your promotion, you need to help people see the big picture. This overview tells the whole story, giving viewers a framework for understanding what’s going on.

At the video’s end, you’re intrigued.

The story is compelling. The characters are believable. But because the stories are told in reverse time (starting at the end of the story and showing scenes from earlier in the day to fill in the gaps), you feel compelled to engage more.

My thoughts

If you have the resources to make an overview video, it’s worth the extra effort. The one drawback is that it’s longer. The benefit is that people who won’t take time to watch five videos will still get the whole story.

The Story: 5 acts told in 5 videos

Here’s the videos in order, so you can see how Google puts them together.

1. A Curious Delivery

2. The Grey Suit and the Rough Day

3. Becoming Queen Elizabeth

4. Extra Anchovies and the Moon

5. A Thursday Invitation

Why this works

Obviously, Google does a lot of things right here. But we don’t have space to go into everything that contributes to this big win. So let’s pare it down to three major elements.

It has a good story

One of the reasons this promotion works is that it’s based on a compelling story. It’s engaging and the characters are personable.

But story alone isn’t enough.

It has a point

It’s the details that make a marketing campaign sing. The channel, in this case video, isn’t what makes it great. The quality of the video isn’t enough either. What makes this campaign so engaging is that there’s an underlying message behind every video.

Mobile can increase in-story sales.

Mobile can drive sales through phone calls.

Mobile can drive sales through apps.

You get the idea.

It gives people enough visual queues to keep them going

This is a detail, but it makes the difference between a good campaign and a stellar one.

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2 COMMENTS

Hey Kathryn, thanks for sharing this great post! Not only was the content very useful, I particularly liked how you practiced what you preached by illustrated your points with images and video, almost like the Big G themeselves